Murder at Catfish Corner: A Maggie Morgan Mystery

by Michelle Goff

  “I don’t want to know.” Tyler turned in his chair, inserted his ear buds, and said, “Maggie, I can’t believe this. You disappoint me. You have a dog.”

  “I’m not planning on eating dog and dumplings. I don’t understand,” Maggie protested. “Everybody eats chicken. Where do you think it comes from?”

  “I don’t like to think about where my food comes from,” the summer intern said as she headed out the newsroom in search of a feature photo.

  “I bet you people wouldn’t eat fresh bacon, either.”

  “It depends,” a voice behind Maggie said, “what do you mean by fresh?”

  Maggie turned to find Stella standing at her desk and holding a bouquet of flowers.

  “I picked hibiscus out of my garden. I hope you will accept them as a token of my appreciation as well as an apology.”

  Stella handed the vase of yellow, purple, and pink flowers to Maggie, who sat them on her Associated Press Stylebook. “Thank you,” Maggie said.

  “I was hoping we could discuss a few things.”

  “I only have a few minutes to talk. I need to finish a story and proof two others.” Maggie glanced into the break room and saw three pressmen huddled around a table and watched as the sports editor and sports reporter moseyed out of the building for their afternoon coffee break. She cleared newspapers off the chair beside her desk and said, “I guess we can talk here.”

  Stella sat in the chair and said, “I’m sorry for my rudeness. As you’ve noticed, I’m very protective of Brother. I didn’t want him to feel uncomfortable talking to you without me there to support him.”

  “He didn’t seem uncomfortable. He told me I reminded him of your daughter.”

  Stella smiled and touched Maggie’s arm. “Good. That means he likes you. But I still don’t understand why you spoke to him.”

  “Stella, you asked me to look into Hazel’s death and that’s what I’m trying to do.”

  “Brother had nothing to do with that. He’s incapable of hurting anyone.”

  “How can we be so sure of that? He is getting the house.”

  “He doesn’t know that yet.” She inhaled audibly. “You didn’t tell him, did you?”

  “Of course, not. But he’s benefiting from Hazel’s death. He must be considered a suspect.”

  “I don’t like where this is going. If that’s what you have in mind, blaming Brother,” Stella flipped her hands toward Maggie, “you can quit.”

  “It’s too late for me to quit, Stella, and I’m not accusing him. I do consider him a suspect, but, don’t worry, he’s not the only one.”

  Stella ran her fingers over a flower. “Is Earnest on this list of suspects?”

  “Yes, he is.”

  She smiled. “Good. I know in my heart that he killed Hazel.”

  “Stella, depending on the day of the week, I’m not sure I believe anybody killed Hazel. But if she was murdered, you have to consider the possibility that you might not like where this leads.”

  “It will lead to Earnest and that doesn’t worry me at all.” Stella straightened the office supplies on Maggie’s desk. “Brother told me you spoke to Fallon the day you talked to him. I guess she told you about the eviction notice.”

  “She did. She was crying.”

  “I feel bad for her, I do. But Hazel should have never rented the house to her or to anyone for that matter. And Fallon will find somewhere else to live.”

  Maggie scratched her head. “I really need to get back to work.”

  Stella made a motion to stand, but stopped and said. “While I’m thinking about it, I wanted to ask if you’d be interested in looking through a couple boxes I found in Hazel’s closet. I opened one file that contained some insurance claims. It’s probably nothing, but you never know.”

  “I’ll take a look at them.”

  “I’ll bring them by here tomorrow. It was good to see you. Good luck with your story and don’t forget to water your flowers.”

  “Thanks. They’re beautiful.” Stella was almost out of the newsroom when Maggie said, “Hey, could you bring me her laptop, too?”

  “You’ll have it tomorrow.”

  Maggie read the last paragraph she had written before the newsroom had become consumed with the subject of chicken. Before she could so much as craft another sentence, Joe walked out of his office and leaned against the wall across from her desk.

  “Nice flowers. Who was that woman? She looks familiar.”

  “Stella Martin. She’s Hazel Baker’s sister.”

  Joe tapped the back of his head against the wall. “I wasn’t eavesdropping, but I caught parts of your conversation.”

  “If you can hear my conversations in your office, does this mean you’ve heard me complain about your overbearing management style?”

  “Yes, I hear it every day. Back to Ms. Martin, does this mean you’re snooping again?”

  “If you want to put it that way, then yes, I am.”

  “Maggie –”

  “It’s not interfering with work. Yes, Stella did visit me here, but what’s the difference between me talking to her for a few minutes and the sports guys visiting the coffee shop on Main Street every afternoon?”

  “There is no difference, but you’re my friend and I worry.”

  “I worry about you, too, Joe. There’s something wrong with somebody who doesn’t like chicken and dumplings.”

  Maggie related news of Joe’s aversion to chicken and dumplings at dinner with Luke, Edie, and Ben, but decided not to share her idea on how to obtain the chicken part of the meal.

  “There’s no accounting for taste.” She rested her chin on Luke’s shoulder. “That would be like somebody not liking Randy Travis.” Maggie’s phone rang, ruining her blissful moment. She groaned and pulled her phone from her purse. It was the same number Officer Tackett had called from, so she pressed accept and said, “Hello.”

  “Hey, Maggie, how’s it going?”

  Seth, she said to herself. “I’m having dinner,” she said to him.

  “Well, I won’t keep you, but we need to talk.”

  “About?”

  “About the fact that you lied to an officer of the law. I know you recognized Brandi Baker on that video.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Maggie tried with no success to reach Seth later that night, but heard from him the next morning in the form of a voice mail. “Sorry I missed your call,” he said. “I was working a case. Unless I hear otherwise from you, I’ll see you in the park at five.”

  Maggie moped around all day. She couldn’t muster enough enthusiasm to join the discussion when the sports guys shared the account of a fist fight that had broken out between two umpires during a little league game or admonish Tyler when he characterized a caller who complained about one of his stories as a “toothless, holler-dwelling inbreed.”

  After a solitary lunch, she met Stella in the parking lot and transported two boxes as well as Hazel’s laptop and a handful of papers from Stella’s car to hers. Throughout the day, she answered questions about her well-being with a terse, “I’m fine, just tired.” At five o’clock, she exited the building and crossed the street to the park where Seth sat waiting for her on the steps of the gazebo.

  “There are clouds on the horizon,” he said as Maggie planted herself a foot from him on the steps. “Must be something about us and the park.”

  “How did you know it was Brandi Baker?”

  “I guess small talk is out of the question,” Seth said with a smile. When Maggie didn’t make eye contact, he sighed and added, “It worried me when I heard you couldn’t identify the person on the video. I thought, correctly, I might add, that it had something to do with this Hazel Baker situation or that you were being stalked or targeted. But I’ve been busy and didn’t get to watch the video until yesterday. Officer Tackett identified the suspect as a female and I wanted to see if I recognized her. Maybe I had come into contact with her or even arrested her. I didn’t recognize her, but I did see a
figure in the front seat –”

  Maggie rolled her head to the side and said, “Of course, you did.”

  “Of course, I did, because I’m trained to see that sort of thing.”

  “Did Officer Tackett see it?”

  “I don’t think so, but he’s a rookie and that’s not the point. The figure was either extremely short or a kid and I remembered you saying that Brandi Baker had a little girl. I pulled her driver’s license photo and, well, it’s not a perfect match, but I knew it was her. So, I have a question for you, Maggie. When did you become such a liar?”

  Maggie felt the anger pounding against her temples. “I told him it could be anybody, so technically, I didn’t lie. But don’t you dare tell me you’ve never lied during the course of an investigation.”

  “I’m a cop.”

  “So? I’m sort of an investigator.”

  “Sort of is right. But it doesn’t give you an excuse to break the law.”

  “Don’t turn this into a federal case. I didn’t commit perjury. I didn’t obstruct justice.” When Seth rolled his eyes, she said, “There’s no case if I don’t press charges so what’s the big deal? I’m the victim.”

  “You blackmailed her, didn’t you?”

  Maggie wasn’t prepared for Seth’s change of subject and could only manage to say, “Uh, no.”

  “You’re going to sit there and tell me you didn’t use that video as leverage to extract information from her?”

  “Did I suggest to her that it would be in her best interest to meet with me and pay for the damages to my car? Yes. Was that a mutually beneficial arrangement? Yes. Was it extortion? No.”

  “You have an answer for everything.” Seth covered his face with both hands and rubbed his eyes. “Did she kill Hazel Baker?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Then why vandalize your car? By the way, did you get your car back?”

  “Yes, I did. And, just so you know, Kevin Mullins’ friend fixed it for me and Kevin talked him into giving me a sweet deal. That’s the same Kevin Mullins you were convinced killed Mac Honaker, in case you forgot.”

  Seth laughed. “What does it matter to you if Kevin got his buddy to cut you a deal? Brandi Baker paid for it. You should have had Kevin’s friend jack the price up on her. That would teach her not to go around busting windows with a baseball bat. And you still haven’t told me why she threatened you.”

  “I don’t remember you asking, but she did it because she wanted me to stay away from her husband.”

  Seth grinned. “Isn’t he Hazel’s age? I guess he does go for younger women. Should Luke be jealous?”

  “No. It’s nothing like that and it wouldn’t matter if he were interested in me. I think he’s gross, he’s married, and he reminds me of a weasel.” Maggie hunched her shoulders and leaned forward. “Brandi thinks Earnest killed Hazel.”

  Seth whistled. “Whoa. What do you think about that?”

  “It’s possible. Stella swears he did it. He had a motive and he lies.”

  “Huh. So does lying automatically make you good for a murder?”

  Maggie glowered at Seth. “No, of course not, but Earnest lies about things that can be easily disproven. I mean, he told me Brandi had an ex-husband. She doesn’t.”

  “So, if you’re going to lie, make it a good one. Is that what you’re saying?”

  Maggie looked directly into Seth’s green eyes. “Cut it out.”

  Seth shrugged. “Brandi could be lying to you, too.”

  “I think she’s the only one who’s telling the truth. Sure, she has anger issues and she lacks self-awareness especially when it comes to her role in breaking up Earnest’s marriage, but it’s kind of refreshing to talk to someone who tells the truth in spite of themselves.”

  “People usually aren’t as good or as bad as they seem. As for her and Earnest, if he hadn’t wanted her to break up his marriage, she couldn’t have done it.”

  Later, when Maggie thought back to their conversation, she didn’t know what had compelled her to ask Seth, “Is that what happened to your marriage? Was a third party involved?” As soon as Seth turned his woeful face upon her, she regretted her words.

  “No. I have no reason to suspect that Jamie cheated on me. And while I’m not perfect, I was never unfaithful to Jamie or to you or to any of my exes. I would hope that after all this time, you would know me better than that.”

  “I do know that. I … never mind. It’s none of my business.”

  “It’s all right.” Seth clasped his hands in front of him. “I hate to admit this, even to myself, but I never should have married Jamie. I rushed into that relationship and marriage. I didn’t know her as well as a man should know his wife. And I didn’t take the time to get to know her after the wedding, either.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We were both in our early thirties and we both wanted kids, so we decided not to wait. We started trying on the honeymoon.” He shook his head. “In retrospect, that would have been a mistake even if we could have had kids. But we couldn’t have them, and it was because of me.”

  “Seth, I’m sorry. I know how badly you wanted kids.”

  “I know that’s not important to some men, but it is to me. I wanted to be a father more than anything. I suggested we adopt, but she said her family would never accept an adopted child. I argued that it wouldn’t be their kid, it would be ours, but she was afraid the kid wouldn’t feel welcome, that he wouldn’t feel like part of the family. And that was that. It fell apart before it had even started.” He swatted a fly circling Maggie’s head. “It’s funny how things work out. But actions have consequences and one decision can make you spend the rest of your life trying to choke back the regret.”

  Maggie knew he wasn’t talking about Jamie any longer, but she didn’t know what to say. They sat on the steps, each staring in a different direction, until Seth’s phone rang. He answered it and said, “Yeah. Okay. I’ll be right there.”

  He stepped away from the gazebo and said, “Our suspect in the chicken tender case has sufficiently recovered from surgery and is finally well enough to submit to an interview.”

  “I heard about that. Tyler said your guy hitched his truck to the restaurant’s freezer and pulled open the door, liberating cases of frozen food in the process.”

  Seth chuckled. “And all he took was chicken tenders. We found them in the deep freezer at his apartment just as he made a run for it and jumped from a three-story window, breaking his legs in four places.”

  “Wow,” Maggie said, “That must be some good chicken. I predict the restaurant will be moving their freezer from outside to inside the premises.”

  “Some people’s kids.” Seth sighed. “Before I go, I want to ask you to do something for me. Call Officer Tackett and tell him that now that you’ve had some time to think about it, you know who smashed your car window. And then tell him it was a misunderstanding and you don’t want to press charges.”

  “Okay.”

  Seth nodded. “Good. Take care and call me if you need me.”

  As Maggie watched him walk out of the park, she pulled her legs to her chest, and wrapped her arms around her legs. She sat like that until light rain began to fall.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  After calling Officer Tackett from her car, Maggie picked up dinner and drove to Luke’s.

  “I’m glad you called when you did,” Luke said as he assembled his steak fajita. “I was getting ready to eat a boring turkey sandwich for dinner. Did you have to work late?”

  “No.” Maggie took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Luke, I wasn’t exactly forthcoming the night at the police station. I recognized the person who vandalized my car.”

  Luke chased his fajita with a few sips of beer and said, “There’s no better way to end the day than with a cold beer, a warm meal, and a visit from a hot woman.”

  “Luke, you and I both know that I’m lukewarm, at best. Did y
ou hear me? Did you hear what I said about the car?”

  “Yes, Maggie.”

  “And?”

  “And I kind of figured you weren’t exactly forthcoming.”

  “How did you know?”

  “Well, for starters, you were really tense after we found the car, but you seemed to relax after we saw the video. I remember coming home that night and thinking that seemed strange. The only thing that made sense was that you were no longer worried about your safety. You weren’t afraid of the person wielding the baseball bat.”

  “I wouldn’t say that. I’m sure she could take me in a bare-knuckled brawl, but why didn’t you say anything?”

  Luke dipped a tortilla chip into salsa. “I thought you’d tell me when you felt like it.”

  “Were you mad?”

  “I was at first. But I did tell you I didn’t want to hear anything about this Hazel Baker situation, and it has something to do with that, doesn’t it?”

  Maggie nodded and finished the last of her burrito before saying, “I didn’t expect you to be so understanding.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

  She scooted her chair closer to his and draped her arms around his shoulders. “I’m sorry. That didn’t come out the way I intended. It’s just that I thought you’d be angry.”

  Luke wiped a dollop of dried cheese off her face. “What made you come clean? Did the guilt finally become too much to take?”

  Maggie allowed her arms to fall from Luke’s shoulders and to her side. “Yeah, but only after Seth called me on it.”

  “Seth?” Luke crunched a chip between his teeth.

  “He figured out who was on the video.”

  “How?”

  “It was a woman, he thought the figure in the car had to be a child, and he knew Brandi had a daughter.”

  “What figure in the car?”

  “There was a person in the front seat. Didn’t you see them?” Maggie asked.

  “No.”

  “Neither did Officer Tackett.”

  “How did Seth know Brandi has a kid?” Luke asked.

  “I told him.”

  “When?”